Porous nickel bodies are useful in a variety of applications including, for example, as plaques for alkaline batteries, as filters or seives and as inert structures for catalysts and absorption media. Although traditional methods for making porous nickel plaques yield perfectly good results, it is limited in versatility and often requires the use of organic solvents. Also, it is higly desirable to be able to vary the shape of a porous nickel body so as to optimize thickness and other shape factors for various applications. For example, with nickel plaques used in electrodes for alkaline batteries, greater thicknesses than presently used might be highly desirable. Such thicknesses are not conveniently obtainable by traditional methods. Also, for other applications such as electrical or magnetic applications various body shapes are often desirable. These body shapes are often different from those used in battery applications. Second, from an economic point of view, as well as an ecological point of view, it is desirable to eliminate organic solvents from processing procedures. Indeed, the use of water as a solvent instead of organic solvents is highly desirable.